KILREA’S Josh McErlean says he is looking forward to the prospect of a “high-speed blast” on this week’s Tet Rally Latvia – the eighth round of the 2024 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC).
The Baltic state is making its debut in the sport’s top flight and is the second of three consecutive points-scoring gravel fixtures crews from the Championship will tackle over the summer months.
McErlean has previous experience of the roads that make up the Liepaja-based event, which gets underway tomorrow evening with the Bikernieki super special stage followed by a further 19 speed tests spread across Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The 25-year-old finished fourth overall last year when Latvia was part of the FIA European Rally Championship. Since then, the former Billy Coleman Award winner has switched his allegiance from Hyundai to Skoda and has made a positive start to life with the Czech manufacturer and the Toksport World Rally Team.
“We had a strong result last year in Latvia and that gave us a good understanding of the characteristics of the roads and how conditions of the stages can evolve,” said McErlean, ahead of his fourth WRC2 appearance of 2024.
“It is going to be a new spectacle having this event in the World Rally Championship which will also bring a few changes, but I am really excited for the high-speed blast and it is very much business as usual.
“Of course, we want to be near the front pace again, but a solid point-scoring finish is the ultimate target on Sunday afternoon,” added the number fifteen seed.
McErlean has shown just how competitive he can be in the latest generation Fabia RS Rally2; he scored a top three result on May’s Vodafone Rally de Portugal and was battling hard for a podium finish on last month’s Rally Poland only to lose out to a spin and then a rally-ending accident.
Despite the way Poland ended, McErlean insists he is not too despondent. “Looking back, it was really satisfying to see that we were right on the top pace,” he says.
“Of course, the outcome was not what we had planned, and the final day mishap wiped out all chances of taking home some great championship points. But to be fighting at the sharp end on such a high speed and specialist event is immensely positive when you see the calibre of the WRC2 entry this season.”
He added: “We can take away many good elements from Poland and we also know there is still plenty to work on to get everything more dialled into these faster rallies, it is really nice to know we can improve further.”
Also resuming his WRC2 campaign in Latvia with support from Motorsport Ireland’s Rally Academy and M-Sport Ford is Moira’s William Creighton (Ford Fiesta Rally2). Both Creighton and McErlean will again share the stages with Sami Pajari (Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Yaris Rally2), Gus Greensmith (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2), Oliver Solberg (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2), Nikolay Gryazin (Citroen C3 Rally2) and Teemu Suninen (Hyundai i20 N Rally2).